| Teenaged Background |
| Summary: | Kincaid conducts Nataly's background check and learns a bit about her in the process. |
| Date: | 19 Jan 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | Ebb and Flow |
| Players: |
  |
| Living Quarters — MV Elpis |
|---|
| The freighter has living quarters sufficient to accommodate around 800-1000 people, divided up into rooms of varying sizes. Each room holds multiple sets of bunkbeds, most commonly housing between 10 and 20 people, none housing fewer than four and some as many as 60. For each bed, there is a locker of some sort. These rooms take up several floors, and are arranged around a central 'courtyard'. Each floor has at least one common room, outfitted with scavenged couches and televisions, separate heads for men and women, and laundry facilities. The rooms are pretty barren — plain military-issue bedding on the bunks, and nothing currently adorning metal walls or floors. The lighting is unforgivingly fluorescent, and there is a constant soft hum of generators and ventilation systems in addition to the other noises common to areas housing hundreds of people in relatively close quarters. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #327 |
There is also a galley in a room off the living quarters, with a kitchen of its own, churning out food served in a buffet line much like on Cerberus. There are a few long tables that match and then a smattering of others of all shapes and sizes, the chairs equally mismatched as they are arrayed around them.
Nataly is sitting in one of the common areas in the Dormitory section of MV Elpis, curled up on one side of a couch. On the other side is an older woman, staring blankly into nothing much. Nataly occasionally looks up at her, smiling softly, but for the most part sticks to looking at her notebook, dashing down the occasional note. She still occasionally gets the odd glance from those around her, but she is as oblivious to that as ever.
Enter Danny Kincaid. They LOVE the military police around these parts, the residents of Elpis do. But he's not in the black battle dress uniforms that the Marines assigned to sentry duty wear. Instead, he's in his Marine khakis, MP brassard on his arm. He has a manila folder tucked under his arm, and a pen in hand. "Nataly Rassvet?" he calls out, his eyes flicking around, looking for the girl. He glances down at his chart, as if to make sure he's in the right set of bunks.
Nataly looks up from her notebook when her name is called, smiles and stands, walking over to Kincaid. "Hey, I'm over here." When she gets to him, she offers a hand. "Pleased to meet you, again. Thanks for making time for me."
Kincaid takes the hand, shaking it firmly. "Good to see you, too, Nataly. Sawyer left a message for me, by the way. Said she was going to be staying on Elpis for a few days, so you wouldn't be able to get in touch with her in the News Room. That's not a big deal, though, since it'll take a few days to get your credentials processed." He gestures over at her bunk. "Mind if we step into your office?"
Nataly clicks her tongue. "Would it be okay if we kept it in the common room? We can go over to one of the quieter corners, if you like, but I'd prefer to stay where I can keep an eye on my aunt. Miss Arnad is coming to watch her later, but it's just me for the next half hour or so." She glances around. "I mean, she'll probably be fine, but sometimes she panics if she's left alone."
Kincaid shrugs his shoulders. "That's fine with me, Nataly." He slides himself onto the common room's table, gesturing for her to grab a seat on it next to him. He clicks open his pen. "Your aunt doing all right?" he asks, glancing down at the papers in front of him. She can see her name type-written at the top of the first sheet, with 'CLEARANCE FOR BS CERBERUS CREDENTIALS' in the 'Purpose' box.
Nataly looks over at the older woman, smiling sadly. "It hit her really hard when my uncle died… that was a little after warday. She held it together while we were in hiding on Tauron but now…" She shakes her head. "It was like once we reached safety, she decided she could just let go. She still pulls the occasional work shift, and she'll talk if I work at it, but…" she shrugs. "I don't know. The doctors say that whatever it is, it's in her head, not much to do but keep talking to her and hope she comes out of it."
"Yeah? That's got to be tough. I can't imagine what it'd be like, going through that." Kincaid makes some notes on his form, clucking his tongue sympathetically at her. He glances up and over at Nataly. "So — tell me a bit about what happened after the bombs fell for you. What did you do?"
"Well, Captain Ryder was speaking at Davidson High School, recruiting for the Fleet. The bombs fell during his speech. Most folk scattered, but he kept some of us together." Nataly grimaces, remembering. "Davidson was a pretty new facility, mostly glass and open, so he led us across town to Murray High. Much older, built just after the Cylo… the first Cylon War. Had a Fallout Shelter, built like a fortress. It was on the way we were attacked by some looters… one of them tossed the grenade that killed my uncle. Still, there were about forty of us. We fortified the school, gathered all the food supplies from the cafeteria, and we stayed there for months."
The pen moves non-judgmentally across the page, taking notes in Danny's clipped little shorthand that he has; a combination of abbreviations and chicken-scratch all rolled into one. "What were you planning on doing after high school? College? What got you interested in the journalism thing?"
"My parents left me a lot of money when they died. The plan my aunt, uncle, and myself had worked out was to go to college in Delphi, on Caprica. But I wasn't sure. Life on Tauron had been a lot happier, and…" she shrugged. "Also, what Captain Ryder said was starting to sound good, made sense. A good way to see the Colonies and buy time to think before I went to school, you know? I wrote for the school newspaper at Davidson, that was how I got into writing. It seemed one way to go forward."
"Yeah? So you don't want to join the Fleet now? Maybe get into the new class that's forming up for Fleet Basic?" The pen moves over to a box marked 'interest in military service.' "Or you decided that working for Sawyer was more your style?" Danny cocks his head at her.
"I'm interested in all of it. I've been very impressed by military folks… a few of them have saved my life on multiple occassions. I don't know where I'll do the most good, though. Carrying a gun, flying a ship, or wielding a pen?" Nataly sighs. "I started writing because folks are getting crazy over here and it seemed to be the only way to reach out to people. I know I made some people mad, but it also made some people think. I've been reading Sawyer since I got here, and…" she looks a little desperate. "There isn't a lot I'm not interested in. But this, I was offered, and I want to try it."
Kincaid makes a few notes in the box that his pen has been over, nodding his head. "Uh-huh. So, basically, you're a teenager and you're not sure what you want to do with your life. Sounds like most seventeen-year-olds." He winks over at her. "So what do you think about all this civilian leadership stuff? Vis-a-vis the military?"
Nataly nods to him, though she gives him a look. "I'm eighteen, now, actually, but yeah." She thinks. "That's a hard one. I'm not sure how much the distinction between civilian and military matters, anymore. After all, the Cylons will kill any and all of us regardless of whether we swear the oath, right?" She sighs. "But I think its important to make sure Civilians are represented in the war effort. Else its the military's war, and we're just hoping to survive. It makes everyone so hopeless. The easiest way would be to end Martial Law, to establish a Civilian government. It would have made Abbot's trial a lot cleaner, I think. Not that I am accusing you of doing a bad job of that…" she raises her hands, "but the more checks and balances in place, the more room for justice, right?"
Scribble. Scribble. Scribble. Scribble. Kincaid nods. "Makes sense," he says simply. "So." A pause. "You have any questions for me, Nataly? About — well. Anything?"
Nataly chews her lip for a moment. "You were a Reporter, right? Why did YOU enlist?"
Kincaid smiles at that, a flash of a smile. "I figured I could help people better like this. Sawyer was handling the reporter stuff, you know, that sort of thing, so I figured — you know. I'd turn my reporter skills into detective skills." He clicks his pen closed. "I know how to ask questions, right?"
"That makes sense," Nataly muses, thinking to herself. "So, what else do we need to do? Do you need fingerprints, or anything?"
"Yeah. I'll take a set from you as well as a DNA swab. Once we've got that done, I should have the credentials in a few days." Kincaid reaches into the pocket of his shirt, taking out an ink pad. "We'll just go ahead and roll 'em real quick." He flips to the cardboard card at the back, the fingerprint card.
Nataly nods, and puts her hand forward for the imprint. She glances over her shoulder to check on her aunt, and then looks back. "Thanks for doing this, by the way. Even if I'm not totally sure why Miss Averies is bringing me on."
Kincaid takes Nataly's left hand, bringing it towards the ink pad. "Just relax your hand, let me do all the work. Just roll 'em one at a time." As for the compliment, he just smiles. "No problem. Call it a favor for a friend." His eyes sparkle with a certain something to it.
Nataly responds with a wide smile. "Thank you for that, again. Good to have friends. 'Specially if I'm making as many people mad as people say I am."
Kincaid pauses. "It's a favor for my friend, Sawyer, but yeah, that's fine, Nataly." He smirks at that, but his shine all the brighter. He rolls her left hand and then her right, taking out a swab from his pocket as well, one covered in a paper wrapper. "All right. Go ahead and open wide for me."
Nataly chuckles and opens her mouth. "Ahhhh…"
Kincaid reaches the swab into Nataly's mouth and rubs it against her cheek, then dropping it into a plastic baggie, which he seals across the top. "And we're done." He drops the baggie into his pocket. "I'll be in touch in a few days, Nataly, with your creds. Catch you around, okay?"
"Ok. And again, thank you." Standing, she offers a hand to Kincaid before she remembers the ink, then laughs and gives a respectful nod instead. "I'll go clean my hands. I look forward to seeing you again!"